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I think the Bill that is being marked up now will go under the votes of the Majority of the members of committee. We then have two other Bills that have to be put together with this one. The Blue Dogs had a different perspective, and that is the legislative process. We have brought this to get there hopefully and we will move forward...

I think the American public has been watching a part of the debate both in the Senate and the House and they see a lot of different opinions. But I think they understand and that poll reflects it that they want a health care reform bill. 94% of them you say are concerned that we won't get the job done. I want to assure them we're going to get the job done. And as you said, a little earlier, we made significant progress last night. The Energy and Commerce Committee is back at the table marking up their bill...

...the current system is not sustainable. The current system does not include all Americans, and the current system is too expensive and it's not sustainable over the long term. So, we've got to bring the cost curve down, lot of discussion about that. We've got to make sure every American has access to affordable quality health care. We've got to make sure the pre-existing conditions don't preclude people from getting insurance that they need. And we've got to make sure small business can afford insurance. Those are the objectives.

I said the other night he was my friend, but friends have disagreements, and on this, on fiscal policy, we have had a significant disagreement. I have heard a lot of speakers on this floor talk about how this Bill doesn't get us to where we want to get. I have heard a lot of people talk about how we have four exceptions in this Bill. Most of the people have talked about the four exceptions in this Bill, have repeatedly talked over the last four, five years as to how this was current baseline spending and certainly we didn't have to pay for current baseline spending, i.e.

I want to say to Ed Lorenzen who worked with Charlie Stenholm on this proposition for over a decade, thank you for the work you have done. I want to say to my Blue Dog friends, thank you for your leadership. And I want to say to my progressive friends who understand the ramifications of spending deficits that adversely affect the most lnerable in our country, vote against this m.t.r., vote for this statutory pay-go, let us get back on the road to fiscal responsibility...